Episode 281: Why Becky Lynch Should Beat Ronda Rousey

It seems like I’ve been writing a whole lot about pro wrestling these past few weeks now. But that’s because I have “sport entertainment” on the mind lately because of all of the stuff that’s been happening in the WWE. We had Roman Reigns leave the business to once again do battle against leukemia. We just had Evolution, the WWE’s first ever all-woman pay-per-view event, which was great. This is in contrast to Crown Jewel, one of the worst shows from recent memory. But the WWE is still not done with me because we have Survivor Series right around the corner!

There’s a lot to unpack for Survivor Series. There are the traditional 5-vs-5 RAW vs Smackdown traditional Survivor series matches. We also have the interbrand matches between both brands such as RAW’s Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins taking on Smackdown’s United State Champion Shinusuke Nakamura. But there is one match I’m really looking forward to. That would be Smackdown Women’s Champ Becky “The Man” Lynch vs RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey.

Why is this match on my radar? Well, it’s because it has probably the two hottest commodities in the WWE right now: Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey. On paper, it looks so obvious that the WWE will make Ronda Rousey pick up the victory over Becky Lynch at Survivor Series as the former is definitely the bigger star, mainstream-wise. However, if the WWE was smart and would actually want the fans to be happy, they should make Becky Lynch win and show us why she’s currently The Man in the WWE.

I’m not discrediting Ronda Rousey. Not in the least. I have been very impressed with what she’s done in the WWE lately. She’s a terrific in-ring performer! She can do some great wrestling moves (maybe a little unsafe as she may have concussed Alexa Bliss once or twice) and is able to sell in a believable manner. She’s also great on the mic as well as she is able to do a decent promo most of the time; it does tend to sound a little scripted but she’s definitely better than some of the WWE’s female wrestlers who have been in the business for much longer *cough* IWishYouDiedInTheWomb *cough*.

In fact, I generally have no issues with Ronda Rousey gaining the RAW Women’s Championship in her rookie year. She’s also very charismatic in a down-to-earth sort of way. She definitely is a huge star and the WWE is trying to capitalize on that by giving her the pushiest of pushes available. They want her to be the spokesperson of the company and someone who you can cheer for when she comes to the ring.

Strangely enough, that’s pretty much one of the reasons why she has to lose to Becky Lynch at Survivor Series. If she wins and beats Becky Lynch, the fans will start booing Ronda Rousey. That’s because Becky Lynch, although she’s supposed to be a heel, she’s uber-popular right now among wrestling fandom. In all honesty, she’s earned it! And the WWE accidentally had a hand in that.

Becky Lynch’s skyrocketing popularity had to do with the WWE trying to push Charlotte as Smackdown’s version of Roman Reigns. Charlotte managed to worm her way into the Smackdown Women’s Title match at this year’s Summerslam, making it a triple-threat match between her, then-champion Carmela and her “best friend” Becky Lynch. Fans resented that the WWE put in Charlotte in the match at the last minute and saw this as an insult to Becky Lynch, who had to earn the match. To add insult to injury, Charlotte won by nailing her “best friend” Becky Lynch with Natural Selection just moments before Becky Lynch would have made Carmela tap out! So, when Becky Lynch attacked Charlotte, fans loved it because we knew why she did it! We didn’t even need the explanation on the Smackdown show after Summerslam! We knew why and the WWE Universe was behind her 100%!

Thankfully, Becky Lynch is wise enough to know a good thing as she’s definitely taking advantage of her new heel persona. She’s always been good on the mic but the problem is, she never really got to flex her promo skills before as a goody-two-shoes. But as a heel champ, she’s gotten a whole lot better with her superb cocky, badass attitude! Fans hang on her every word and, in my opinion, she’s The Man on the mic in the WWE right now! Heck, she’s even changed her Twitter handle to “The Man” because that’s what she is! That’s commitment to the character!

Even if she’s become more overconfident as of late, Becky Lynch actually still comes off as the underdog in most of her matches. This is definitely true for her match against Ronda Rousey. In a real fight, I have no doubt that Rousey would take out Lynch in a heartbeat. But this is the world of “sports entertainment” so Becky Lynch has more of a fighting chance. However, odds are the WWE perceive Ronda Rousey to be one of their biggest moneymaker and have even given her an aura of invincibility as she’s dominated most of her matches. Why would they want to crack that shell of invincibility? Well, because Ronda Rousey would have to lose eventually and it may as well be with Becky Lynch!

I get that they want Ronda Rousey to seem like this unstoppable monster but I think, in the long run, this would be a bad move. Having a good guy have an extremely long winning streak is never good in this day of age. This is probably one of the reasons why a lot of WWE fans hated John Cena. Sure, the kiddies like him because he’s like a superhero who can pull of super feats of strength. But fans just got tired of him because he never really loses. This could definitely happen to Ronda Rousey if they stay the course.

But why Becky Lynch? Well, I already said that one of the reasons is because The Man is incredibly popular among the WWE Universe, more specifically, the live attending audience. But Becky Lynch beating Ronda Rousey would have the potential to do two things. One, make Becky Lynch’s star shine even brighter and, two, make Ronda Rousey a little more human. If The Man wins, imagine the promos she can do, boasting that she beat the Baddest Woman on the Planet. At the same time, Rousey can use the loss as a wake up call and actually start taking her matches more seriously. I mean, take a look at every match Rousey has had. More often than not, she doesn’t take her opponent seriously at the start. She then gets beat up a bit and, once she’s “hulked up,” she starts dominating. Losing to Lynch can make her more dangerous!

Another reason why Becky Lynch should win is because she has more to gain from a victory and more to lose if she doesn’t. If Ronda Rousey wins, it’s just going to be business as usual. But if Becky Lynch loses, that could deflate her burgeoning adoration she’s been getting. The reason why The Man schtick works so well is because she’s managed to overcome the odds. She beat Charlotte Flair and managed to retain her championship. She’s become more ruthless as she wants to show dominance. A loss against Rousey would be detrimental at the moment as other female wrestlers can poke fun at her for losing at Survivor Series. But if she wins, she can just hold that over everyone’s heads for as long as she wants!

Besides, it’s not like Becky Lynch needs to win fair and square! Even though the fans are behind her, The Man is still a heel character so she it wouldn’t be out of character for her to steal a victory by hook or by crook. Maybe she could hit Rousey with either the RAW or Smackdown Women Championship belts. Or, better yet, have Lynch roll up Rousey after the latter applies the armbar but grab a handful of tights or use the ropes for leverage. The shocking victory would be huge. This also would afford Rousey to get upset after the match and just go ham on The Man afterwards. Ronda Rousey may have gotten her revenge for the cheap victory… but it’ll still be a victory that Becky Lynch can brag about the next day.

I do hope the WWE actually understands what the WWE Universe wants to see instead of doing what they think is “best for business.” And what’s really best for business is Becky Lynch being The Man that dominates the Baddest Woman on the Planet.

Byee!

Do you think Becky Lynch should beat Ronda Rousey at Survivor Series? Let me know in the comments section below!